Where Europe Begins by Yoko Tawada

Where Europe Begins is a wonderful book of short stories by Yoko Tawada that takes place in Europe and Japan. The author wrote some of the stories in Japanese and some of the stories in German. Yoko Tawada grew up in Japan and later lived in Germany. This is the third book I have read and reviewed by Yoko Tawada. The other books, The Naked Eye and Facing The Bridge, also focused on the same themes of shifting identities, language, and culture.

There is a poem written by Wim Wenders as an introduction, inspired by the book. I did not know who Wim Wenders was, and assumed this was a woman. I looked on wikipedia and found Wim Wenders is actually a man, and a German playwright, author, film director, and producer. Wim praises Yoko Tawada's writing throughout the four page poem. For example, 'a model of utopian storytelling ... there cannot possibly be a more beautiful book ...'

I agree with Wim and find this book to be a masterpiece, and my favorite book by Yoko Tawada so far. My favorite stories in the book are The Bath, The Reflection, The Talisman, Where Europe Begins, and A Guest. These stories are cleverly written and are a mix of fairy tales, everyday life, and surreal dreamlike sequences.

The Bath reminds me of the movie Inception, because there are layers upon layers of the story and I feel that I am part of a dream while reading. The main character interacts with a ghost, laments the annoyances of her job as a temp language translator, and observes bizarre changes to her body that are possible hallucinations all in the same day.

The Bath begins with the main character applying make up and removing scales from her body. She describes that she must apply makeup because otherwise she does not look like a normal person. Her friend Xander, a photographer, taught her how to apply makeup. Xander showed her that if she does not apply makeup, she will not appear on film because her skin is translucent. She fears that she will be late for work because it takes so much time to apply the makeup and remove the scales from her body.

She arrives at her temp job as a language translator for Japanese business owners visiting a German business. She translates for them during a business dinner, and finds the conversations boring and sometimes embellishes the conversations and does not translate accurately to make her job more interesting. The main course is served as a gigantic fish. The restaurant workers make a show of removing all of the meat and leaving the fish scales and eyes intact before serving the meal.

She becomes ill and goes to the bathroom. She then wakes up and discovers she has passed out. She can no longer speak. A maid takes her home with her to a nearby apartment, on the way speaking to her and telling her bizarre tales. When they arrive at the woman's apartment, the woman reveals that she has removed the language translator's tongue and that is why she can no longer speak. She promises that if she returns the next evening she will return the tongue.

The next day, she returns home. She finds that the maid is a ghost that either committed suicide or was a victim of an accidental fire and the police are investigating. When she returns to the apartment building during the daytime, the place is burned down and infested with rats. She returns the next night and is able to recover her tongue from the ghost, but in return is cursed with scales all over her body.

She returns home to visit her mother in Japan, and discovers her mother lives in a bizarre situation and also is suffering delusions. It is also revealed that Xander is not the person she described him as at the beginning of the novel, he is not a photographer, but a language tutor that taught her German and her boyfriend. Xander communicates to her with puppets and likes to use the third person with her and imagine she and Xander are puppets.

The Reflection resembles a Japanese fairytale about a monk who falls into the lake in pursuit of the moon. Others soon follow him, and eventually the lake is full of the moon, the monk, a little girl, and so on. The story is written in part poetry and part prose form.

The Talisman is an interesting tale that focuses on symbolism and using jewelry or a talisman to ward off evil. The main character resembles the author and is a Japanese woman living in Germany. She notices her German friend Gilda wears triangular shaped earrings and asks Gilda why women wear metal in their ears.

Gilda tells her lower class women get their ears pierced early in life and educated women get their ears pierced as adults. She reasons that the earrings are talismans worn to ward off evil, similar to statues of dogs at Shinto shrines that are supposed to guard the shrine and ward off evil. Gilda is concerned that evil spirits and aliens have taken hold of her computer and are adding sentences to her essay she did not write.

She suggests Gilda should place a talisman near the computer to ward off evil, for example a charm or a snakeskin should be placed near the computer. Her friend's chosen way to ward off evil is to buy stickers that show evil intent (a car, a nuclear power plant, a gun) with the words 'No Thanks' also on the sticker. The stickers work for her friend, and her friend then buys more stickers to place on her bike and other possessions. I found this story hilarious and interesting in regards to the delusions Gilda suffers, and enjoyed the stickers with 'No Thanks.'

Where Europe Begins tells the story of the author traveling from Japan to Moscow. She travels first by boat, and relates the custom of throwing paper snakes in the air while the ship departs so that loved ones can catch the paper and cling to it while the ship sails away. She describes how Moscow has a special meaning for herself and her family. Her parents saw the famous play Three Sisters and see Moscow as a fantasy and not a real place.

Her mother told her a story as a child that in Moscow there is a book written that never ends, and the reader could read the book all day everyday and never finish the book even if they read the book their entire life. A fairytale was also told to her as a child about a girl and her mother that must travel through the mountains in Russia. To get to their destination, they must pass several monsters and are afraid. They are told to not be afraid and to realize in their past lives they were monsters, and with this knowledge the monsters disappear and do not harm them.

Where Europe Begins also focuses on other aspects of language, culture, borders, and identity. After the author reaches Siberia by boat, she then travels by sleeper train through Siberia. She sees signs that show they are passing the border of Europe and Asia, and has a discussion with a French man on the train. The French man does not agree that Moscow is a part of Europe. It is interesting to me that Europe and Asia are interconnected, but considered separate continents instead of the same continent. It is also believed that Russia was linked to Japan by a bridge of ice and that is how people used to travel from Russia to Japan.

A Guest tells the story of a woman's purchase at a flea market. She finds a book cover she is intrigued with, but when she returns home she finds it is actually a book recording, and not an actual book. She describes how her radio at home was stat-icky, and upon inspection she found a fingernail caught in the dial. She reasoned that the fingernail or a finger was lost in the radio factory and the finger was removed, but the fingernail missed the quality control inspection. While playing the book on tape at home, she finds the woman's voice eerie. The tape itself may be haunted because even if the tape recorder is turned off, the tape continues playing.

She then places an ad in the paper to find the book that matches the book on tape, so she can read the story without being haunted by the tape recording. A man named Simon has the book, but will not let her purchase it because the book has sentimental meaning to him. It is not the story, but the physical book that has meaning to him. On the cover there are five fingerprints for a hand. He explains that one of his fingers is missing, and his fingerprints on the cover are his only reminder of his lost finger. He allows her to read the book while he watches.

A Guest continues with the bizarre and intriguing story. A next door neighbor asks the main character to join him on a business project. He uses a strange form of psychology and meditation to heal people of their problems. She recognizes all the people that arrive for appointments are her neighbors and friends, all suffering from delusions or voices in their heads that will not go away similar to the haunted tape recording. The story contains so many interconnected puzzle pieces that I would like to read over and over again along with The Bath.

I did not like the stories Spores and Raisin Eyes. Spores focuses on phrases for ears and the literal and figurative meaning phrases like 'lend me your ear.' The main character in the story feels that she must actually remove her ear. I understand the author is making interesting commentary about language, culture, and idioms we use and how they do not make sense when taken literally, but to me this was just too gross to imagine, and I did not feel the enlightenment I felt when reading the other stories.

Raisin Eyes follows similar themes to Spores. In Raisin Eyes, a daughter imagines her father's eyes are raisins and her father can be eaten like bread. I don't think this is anything sinister or she will actually eat her father, but it just made me think of raisin bread, and seeing someone walking around with eyes as raisins disgusted me.